Standing Firm

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

STANDING FIRM

John 18:15-18

15 Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest's courtyard, 16 but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the girl on duty there and brought Peter in.

17 "You are not one of his disciples, are you?" the girl at the door asked Peter. He replied, "I am not."

18 It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

NIV

Why John speaks of himself in the third person is a little strange, yet it would seem he does not want to draw any attention to himself because his gospel is all about the divinity of Jesus. However, he does speak of Peter often and maybe that is because Peter is always in the forefront of the action when it comes to Jesus. Nevertheless here is the first of the three times Peter makes his denial of being one of Jesus’s disciples. Peter was the man who confessed that Jesus was the Son of the Living God, the Messiah, the Savior, which Jesus said that man had not revealed that to him, but the Spirit did. Peter was also the man who Jesus told him, “Satan get behind me”. Peter is one of those bold open your mouth before you think kind of people. But here he is following Jesus at a distance and because he could not get into the courtyard of the high priests home, John got him in and there is where the trouble starts. As he is brought in by John, the girl on duty, which we do not know what her duty was exactly, commented to Peter that he was one of Jesus’s disciples. Peter does not hesitate, even for a moment, “I am not”. How fast he was in his denial and Jesus had just told him a little while ago he was going to do this three times. Would we ever deny Jesus? Of course, Jesus never told us we would so it is highly unlikely we would ever deny him. We would consider it pure joy if someone would ask us, are you not a disciple of Jesus? Oh my, we would be delighted to answer, “Why yes we are”, “Would you like to be one too?” But is there a day coming under some kind of intense persecution that we would not be so bold in our admission of being a believer, a follower of Jesus? We will never know at this point and we can only hope that we will stand firm, hold our ground, fight the good fight, finish our race strong and always continue to be bold standing up for Jesus.